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28 March 2012

19 March 2012

A History of Balance of Power

Measured by GDP(ppp) from G9 countries.
Interesting to note that several countries are absent from this comparison. Was the Roman empire really that small?

Reference: Link

11 March 2012

Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura."

Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. "This generates tension in the listener," said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. "When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good."

Chills often descend on listeners at these moments of resolution. When several appoggiaturas occur next to each other in a melody, it generates a cycle of tension and release. This provokes an even stronger reaction, and that is when the tears start to flow.

"Someone Like You," which Adele wrote with Dan Wilson, is sprinkled with ornamental notes similar to appoggiaturas. In addition, during the chorus, Adele slightly modulates her pitch at the end of long notes right before the accompaniment goes to a new harmony, creating mini-roller coasters of tension and resolution, said Dr. Guhn.
To learn more about the formula for a tear-jerker, a few years ago Dr. Guhn and his colleague Marcel Zentner found musical excerpts—from Mendelssohn's "Trio for Piano" and Barber's "Adagio for Strings," for example—that reliably produce the chills and then measured the physiological reactions (heart rate, sweating, goose bumps) of listeners.

Chill-provoking passages, they found, shared at least four features. They began softly and then suddenly became loud. They included an abrupt entrance of a new "voice," either a new instrument or harmony. And they often involved an expansion of the frequencies played. In one passage from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488), for instance, the violins jump up one octave to echo the melody. Finally, all the passages contained unexpected deviations in the melody or the harmony. Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern.

"Someone Like You" is a textbook example. "The song begins with a soft, repetitive pattern," said Dr. Guhn, while Adele keeps the notes within a narrow frequency range. The lyrics are wistful but restrained: "I heard that you're settled down, that you found a girl and you're married now." This all sets up a sentimental and melancholy mood.

When the chorus enters, Adele's voice jumps up an octave, and she belts out notes with increasing volume. The harmony shifts, and the lyrics become more dramatic: "Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead."

Adele, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter performed "Rolling In The Deep" from her latest album "21" at WSJ Cafe

When the music suddenly breaks from its expected pattern, our sympathetic nervous system goes on high alert; our hearts race and we start to sweat. Depending on the context, we interpret this state of arousal as positive or negative, happy or sad.

If "Someone Like You" produces such intense sadness in listeners, why is it so popular? Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

Measuring listeners' responses, Dr. Zatorre's team found that the number of goose bumps observed correlated with the amount of dopamine released, even when the music was extremely sad. The results suggest that the more emotions a song provokes—whether depressing or uplifting—the more we crave the song.

With "Someone Like You," Adele and Mr. Wilson not only crafted a perfect tear-jerker but also stumbled upon a formula for commercial success: Unleash the tears and chills with small surprises, a smoky voice and soulful lyrics, and then sit back and let the dopamine keep us coming back for more.
—Ms. Doucleff is a scientific editor at the journal Cell.

Link: Anathomy of a Tear-jerker

23 January 2012

Moral principles - Immanual Kant

Well put on the right moral principles by Professor Sandels at Harvard University.

Links:
Harvard: http://www.justiceharvard.org/
YouTube1: http://forum-network.org/lecture/mind-your-motive-supreme-principle-morality
YouTube2: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06767B5721CF031B

1: http://www.axess.se/Tv/webbtv.aspx?id=2757 (Mind your motive or Moralens överläge)
2: http://axess.se/tv/player.aspx?id=2773

20 November 2011

TED: Simon Sinek & Steve Jobs - Leadership by why

I first found an intersting speach from Simon Sinek today (under Most viewed on TED).

How great leaders inspire others by telling why.

On Simon's homepage was a video about purpose. You can skip to the end, where he summarise a few things about leadership in the military. It's worth hearing.

Then, I heard the speach from Steve Jobs who inspired Simon where he says follow your heart.

Steve mentioned a book 'Whole Earth Catalogue' that I wish I knew about when I was young.
I would had been a perfect, if I only had known english as today.
I like the end: Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

25 October 2011

Guide to Euro Crisis

Links: Paper link, Interactive site link

Other: What are the Wall St Protestors So Angry About, A visual about income equality in the USA

11 September 2011

A day made of glass

Watch "A Day Made of Glass" and take a look at Corning's vision for the future with specialty glass at the heart of it.

Startup Genome - The Growth cycle of Startup companies

Since February we've amassed a dataset of over 3200 high growth technology startups. Our latest research found that the primary cause of failure is premature scaling, an affliction that 70% of startups in our dataset possess.

The difference in performance between startups that scale prematurely and startups that scale properly is pretty striking. We found that:

- No startup that scaled prematurely passed the 100,000 user mark.

- 93% of startups that scale prematurely never break the $100k revenue per month threshold.

- Startups that scale properly grow about 20 times faster than startups that scale prematurely.

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Other business models

World GDP & Freight correlation

World GDP % change* has a strong correlation to Suez canal cargo by weight % change*

* on a year earlier.

Link: Economist

Distribution of prosperity

THE 5 percent of Americans with the highest incomes now account for 37 percent of all consumer purchases, according to the latest research from Moody’s Analytics. ...
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